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View Full Version : large tank China LED's with some DIY or? Thoughts?


canar
04/29/2012, 12:49 PM
As I am sure many are I am pretty confused right now after reading about LED's for days. Please respond to this thread with relevant info. Yes I know Halides are cool but I also know LED's are the future. Staying with halides is not an option I am considering. Also just assuming that something made in China does not work for me either. I realize there are challenges dealing with overseas sellers.

My Tank is 10 feet by 3 feet by 30" high and all I care about is SPS. I have a pretty high canopy that has a fan in it and would do a good job of hiding any mess that comes from DIY or whatever I do. The tank has been set up for 10 mini luminarc's running 400W Halides with actinic tubes running the perimiter.

Here are a few things I think I figured out. Please discredit anything here because I am trying to learn.

I want Cree 3W LED's

I want optics but I still need to figure out coverage area against how high I will hang a fixture off the water.

There are blue Cree's and there are white cree's. I am not sure if there are differences in which blues and whites are best for SPS or what the ideal ratio of blue to white is yet.

I have seen that UV and IR are important to SPS as well. Not sure how much of either or exactly what that is for.

Since it was about the price of one new bulb I did purchase one of the cheap 100$ 120W blue and white fixtures. It has no optics and looks about as bright as a 250W halide. It is not close to as bright as a 400.

I have looked at fixtures and DIY. I have looked on ebay and alibaba reeflights etc.

Right now my thoughts are looking for an inexpensive fixture with Cree 3 W LED's and optics. It seems there are enought China companies making these right around the $150 range. At that price I could cover the whole tank with the cree blue and white for a fairly reasonable price. Then I could run strips of IR/UV/Moon Lights inbetween the fixtures with DIY components to fill in all the area's with the missing spectrums.

Any input on any of this that would help my planning would be greatly appreciated. With as long as these things should last I want to do this right the first time.

Ted

canar
04/30/2012, 01:28 PM
Any input anyone?

outssider
04/30/2012, 05:52 PM
What you are thinking sounds like a good plan, those fixtures are reasonable, however by the time you get done playing with your added other colors to fill in the spectrum and compensating for what the Chinese lights don't have you may be better off with making your own diy from scratch. Check this place out....the prices are good...they are not cree but almost as bright....plus you can buy a lot of extra colors to play with down the line....

http://www.aquastyleonline.com/categories/DIY-LED-Lighting/DIY-Dimmable-LED-Kits/
http://www.aquastyleonline.com/categories/DIY-LED-Lighting/LED/

canar
05/01/2012, 11:56 AM
This would actually cost more than the fixtures I am looking at and I would need to do the work too

HurricaneSystem
05/01/2012, 02:19 PM
With as long as these things should last I want to do this right the first time.

When you are worried about the price of something, the statement above is invalid.

I have one of these Chinese fixtures and it works great. However, on your tank, you would need more than a few of these which is going to end up costing you anyway.

Your dimensions calculate to around 560 gallons. So 550-600 gallons full of SPS? You want to jeopardize all of that over a few hundred dollars in lighting?

canar
05/01/2012, 02:24 PM
A Jaguar costs a lot of money but they are piece of crap cars. I never will understand why people get so hooked on cost = quality

I also dont understand how the number of fixtures I need changes this. If anything it multiplys the difference and creates even more motivation to spend wisely.

Helpful input please..